The Power of Financial Focus
Now that we are well into 2018. I am beyond excited to see how far we have come financially. In 2017 we paid off over $20,000 of debt, and we now have under six figures of debt. We started our debt free journey last year not because we had bad credit, or because we were struggling financially. We just wanted more for our lives and for our future. I always told Eddie that we would be young millionaires, but how that was going to happen I wasn't exactly sure. At the beginning of 2017 we thought we were doing so well with paying off debt. In the first 9 months of the year we paid off about $8,200. This came from medical debt, and some credit card debt.
After we began Financial Peace University in October we were able to pay off over $10,000 in debt in just 3 months. A large portion of this $10,000 was my car loan. I can not begin to describe how good it feels to no longer have consumer debt, medical debt, or car debt. We are down to only student loan debt and we are planning to start knocking those out over the next two years. I am not upset about how little we paid to debt in the first three quarters of the year in 2017 because we had some amazing paid for vacations. We got to do a wonderful tour of Italy, and we got to go on a couples trip with some of our friends to Cancun Mexico. I am grateful for these experiences and have zero regrets about taking those vacations!
I wanted to write about our process to getting out of debt because in the age of social media we only see the highlights, and not the process to the highlight. I have also learned through our journey to not envy what you see on social media. That new car that someone posted probably has an expensive car payment. I have also learned that how well someone is doing financially is not in what they are driving and what they are wearing. The person with the broke down car and old clothes probably actually has a positive net worth.
This year we are finally to the place where we are living comfortably on one income and paying down debt with the other. Once we are debt free we will be able to use the second income to save for early retirement and travel the entire world. We will also be able to be a huge financial blessing to others. I am personally really passionate about education and studying abroad so the plan is to use some of our money to start a scholarship fund. I am excited to see that we have a clear plan to be able to make all of these dreams come true.
Our goal for this year is to pay off at least $45,000 to our student loan debt. Some may say that student loan debt is good debt, and that you don't have to worry about paying it off. Another one that I have heard is to figure out how to qualify for a loan forgiveness program where they forgive your loans after ten years. I personally don't want to be in debt for the next 10 years of my life. 2 years is plenty. I also don't trust those loan forgiveness programs because they could change at any time. Throughout this year we plan to also look for ways to make additional money on the side. As we find side hustles I know that we will well exceed our goal of $45,000.
I want to encourage you if you are in debt you can certainly get out, but it doesn't just happen. Getting out of debt requires a plan. The first step to that plan is a budget, and actually telling your money where to go versus not knowing where your money went. I also would encourage you to sign up for a Financial Peace University class. The class has more than paid for itself for us and I am so thankful that we did it! The next thing is find an accountability partner if you are married it should be your spouse and another couple. If you are single find a friend that you can trust, and you feel comfortable sharing how you are doing with your finances. Once you have those things in place figure out your reason for wanting financial freedom. Focusing on the bigger picture helps you to not buy things impulsively in the moment. I can't wait to share more with you all as we continue on throughout this journey. I am sure there will be ups and downs throughout it, but we are more than ready to tackle this debt!
After we began Financial Peace University in October we were able to pay off over $10,000 in debt in just 3 months. A large portion of this $10,000 was my car loan. I can not begin to describe how good it feels to no longer have consumer debt, medical debt, or car debt. We are down to only student loan debt and we are planning to start knocking those out over the next two years. I am not upset about how little we paid to debt in the first three quarters of the year in 2017 because we had some amazing paid for vacations. We got to do a wonderful tour of Italy, and we got to go on a couples trip with some of our friends to Cancun Mexico. I am grateful for these experiences and have zero regrets about taking those vacations!
I wanted to write about our process to getting out of debt because in the age of social media we only see the highlights, and not the process to the highlight. I have also learned through our journey to not envy what you see on social media. That new car that someone posted probably has an expensive car payment. I have also learned that how well someone is doing financially is not in what they are driving and what they are wearing. The person with the broke down car and old clothes probably actually has a positive net worth.
This year we are finally to the place where we are living comfortably on one income and paying down debt with the other. Once we are debt free we will be able to use the second income to save for early retirement and travel the entire world. We will also be able to be a huge financial blessing to others. I am personally really passionate about education and studying abroad so the plan is to use some of our money to start a scholarship fund. I am excited to see that we have a clear plan to be able to make all of these dreams come true.
Our goal for this year is to pay off at least $45,000 to our student loan debt. Some may say that student loan debt is good debt, and that you don't have to worry about paying it off. Another one that I have heard is to figure out how to qualify for a loan forgiveness program where they forgive your loans after ten years. I personally don't want to be in debt for the next 10 years of my life. 2 years is plenty. I also don't trust those loan forgiveness programs because they could change at any time. Throughout this year we plan to also look for ways to make additional money on the side. As we find side hustles I know that we will well exceed our goal of $45,000.
I want to encourage you if you are in debt you can certainly get out, but it doesn't just happen. Getting out of debt requires a plan. The first step to that plan is a budget, and actually telling your money where to go versus not knowing where your money went. I also would encourage you to sign up for a Financial Peace University class. The class has more than paid for itself for us and I am so thankful that we did it! The next thing is find an accountability partner if you are married it should be your spouse and another couple. If you are single find a friend that you can trust, and you feel comfortable sharing how you are doing with your finances. Once you have those things in place figure out your reason for wanting financial freedom. Focusing on the bigger picture helps you to not buy things impulsively in the moment. I can't wait to share more with you all as we continue on throughout this journey. I am sure there will be ups and downs throughout it, but we are more than ready to tackle this debt!
This is our debt free chart that we downloaded. Each line that we color in is $2,000 closer to financial freedom! We downloaded this chart from this website www.debtfreecharts.blogspot.com.
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